Sanitation

Toilets would have been an essential feature in Mohenjo-daro, but the early excavators identified most toilets as post-cremation burial urns or sump pots. This brick structure (one of two - see Slide 48) had a hole in the top that was connected to a… >

This well was associated with a finely constructed bathing platform. A stairway leads up to the well and platform from a lower room. The walls and well have been covered with mud brick and sprayed with clay slurry to protect them from salt crystalli… >

This bathing platform is located next to the street, and is made with bricks laid flat. A small drain running along one side of the bathing floor channels dirty water out to the street. A brick on edge with a notch was placed across the drain hole t… >

A bathing platform in SD area with brick floor made with flat paved bricks. Many bathing platforms were made with watertight floors constructed with bricks laid on their edge. >

A bathing platform in UM area with blocked up doorway leading into the room. The brick floor was made with carefully fitted flat paved bricks and a smaller catchment drain along the side of the platform. A small step was placed at one side of the pl… >

Many of the buildings at Mohenjo-daro had two or more stories. Water from the roof and upper storey bathrooms was carried through enclosed terracotta pipes or open chutes that emptied out onto the street, such as this one on a house in DK-G Area. (S… >

This bathing area in Harappa today is identical to ancient bathing areas. >

Near the warehouse, also on a high plinth, is the upper town or acropolis which spans 128 by 61 meters and has extensive drainage systems. >

The proximity of the seat of power to the warehouse may have ensured that the ruler and his entourage could inspect stocks easily. An ivory workshop in the acropolis suggests that elephants may have been domesticated to produce the raw material. >

The "great bath" is without doubt the earliest public water tank in the ancient world. The tank itself measures approximately 12 meters north-south and 7 meters wide, with a maximum depth of 2.4 meters. Two wide staircases lead down into the tank fr… >